Hold your horses, Joe!
President Biden’s American Rescue Plan authorized $35.8 billion for the Teamsters’ pension scheme — but the federal agency that oversees the payments failed to prevent $127 million from going to deceased participants, according to the inspector general’s report.
The Inspector General of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation found the International Brotherhood of Teamsters received funds for 3,479 members who died, a Nov. 1 memo from the office shows.
The federal agency was required to request a death audit from the plan, known as the Central National Pension Fund, but never verified the accuracy of the information before the money was released.
Central States is one of the nation’s largest multiemployer pension funds and can use commercial vendors to perform death audits, but in a Nov. 2 statement in response to the watchdog’s report, the PBGC cited “limitations” on those vendors’ accuracy.
The Inspector General of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation found that 3,479 deceased team members were included in funds awarded to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters pension plan, a Nov. 1 memo from the office showed. The Washington Post via Getty Images
“PBGC’s final rule requires SFA applicant plans to certify data accuracy, including the requirement to submit death audit documentation, identification of the service provider conducting the audit, and a copy of the audit results provided to the plan administrator. by the service provider,” a spokesperson told The Post.
“Pension plans don’t want to pay money to people who die,” PBGC watcher Nicholas Novak told The Post, but noted the agency can refer to the Social Security Administration’s master death files for that information.
The PBGC denied that the payments to the dead were improper, claiming the funds were never paid directly to Teamsters pensions — and said it would not try to recover the funds.
President Biden’s Save America plan authorized $35.8 billion for the team’s pension plan — but the federal agency that oversees the payments failed to prevent $127 million from being made available to deceased participants. Shawn Thew / Pool via CNP / SplashNews.com
“The June 12, 2023 OIG White Paper, ‘Search Plan Records for Deceased Participants,’ highlights limitations on the accuracy of commercial vendor death audits. In response, the PBGC immediately revised the application review process to require independent mortality audits for all pending and prospective SFA applications,” the PBGC statement said.
“The PBGC has worked with the OIG to resolve the OIG’s latest recommendations to further improve the process and the agency will implement these changes, effective November 1, 2023.”
But Novak insisted the pension agency “didn’t use the tools they had” and instead used “improper payments” as a “term of art” to claim it had followed the correct procedures.
“They’re saying they’re not going to get this money back because it’s not an improper payment,” he said, adding that the PBGC has promised to “fix” their death audit process in the future. “But what happened to the $127 million? That’s the $127 million question.”
“Pension plans don’t want to pay money to people who die,” PBGC Inspector General Nicholas Novak told The Post, but noted the agency may refer to the Social Security Administration’s primary death files.REUTERS
Novak is also auditing other plans to determine whether pension payments were made to additional decedents, according to Bloomberg News, which first reported the error.
“PBGC makes payments of Special Financial Assistance (SFA) directly to approved multi-employer plans, according to statute. PBGC has not made payments to plan participants, nor to participants who have died,” said a spokesperson for The Post in a statement.
“Additionally, the OIG agrees that Special Financial Assistance (SFA) funds are not improperly paid to plans, are not paid to deceased participants or beneficiaries, and should not be subject to recovery actions in the OIG Closure Memo dated September 27, 2023. “
Biden, who referred to himself as the most pro-union US president in history, signed off on sending more than $80 billion to multi-employer pension plans to provide financial relief and address funding shortfalls as part of the American Rescue Plan.
Biden, who referred to himself as the most pro-union US president in history, signed more than $80 billion sent to multi-employer pension plans to provide financial relief and address funding shortfalls. AFP via Getty Images
Novak went on to mention that there is no clawback function available to the PBGC through the 2021 law.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
“Apparently, you can actually take money to the grave — the only catch is that you have to be covered by the PBGC to do so,” House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) told The Post in a statement. .
“No wonder hard-working taxpayers are feeling the pinch in their wallets — the cut of PBCG’s benefit checks to union plans for 3,500 deceased individuals is to blame. Of course the show doesn’t need to pay dead contestants and doesn’t plan to pay dead contestants.”
Foxx said his House panel’s “plan[s] to find out” what will happen to the misallocated funds, calling the inspector general’s report “absolutely appalling.”
Last month, a report from taxpayer watchdog OpenTheBooks.com also found that the PBGC had committed an “egregious” misuse of funds by paying nearly $15 million for new furniture — about $14,400 for each of its 1,000 employees — even though its offices were mostly empty.
Seventeen of 24 federal agencies are now using at least 9% and as much as 49% of their building capacity while their employees work remotely four years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a July 2023 Government Accountability Office Report.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
